BLACK RENAISSANCE, 2022

Permanent public mural
xBk Live
Des Moines, Iowa, USA

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Acrylic

40 × 17 ft.

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Created for xBk Live, Black Renaissance celebrates Black authorship, music, entrepreneurship, and community through a monumental portrait of musician H.E.R. Surrounded by lotus flowers, black butterflies, and an atmospheric field of blues, violets, pinks, and black, the mural imagines Black cultural expression as expansive, joyful, and continually evolving. Inspired by the intersecting histories of the Harlem Renaissance and Des Moines' historic Dogtown neighborhood, the work honors the artists, musicians, business owners, and community leaders whose creativity continues to shape the city's cultural landscape.

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The opening celebration extended the mural into lived experience through models and contemporary hair braiding artists whose presence embodied the work's themes of beauty, artistry, and cultural continuity. Together, the mural and its activation affirmed Black identity as something lived, celebrated, and shared.

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Photos | Janae Patrice Photography